Autumn Joy Stonecrop Plants

Autumn Joy Stonecrop

Autumn Joy is a sedum to bring you huge pleasure in late summer and beyond. Just when most garden perennials are winding down for the year, along comes this lovely thing and dials up the colour with its handsome flat flower heads of raspberry pink, each one made up of hundreds of tiny star-shaped blooms, packed tightly together to form a tactile mass that's irresistible to butterflies, bees and hover flies.

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It stands around 60cm high, on stems that are mid-green and succulent, and adorned with smooth, fleshy, oval leaves, a little like a Christmas cactus. Through the summer the plant fills out beautifully, starting as a rounded dome, the stems slowly growing upwards, topped with flower heads maturing from green to white to pink, so its interest extends well beyond late summer. In fact, leave the spent flower stems standing over winter and you have architectural - and bird - interest over the colder months, too.

In the garden

Sedums look great in a range of garden styles. They're cool and architectural enough to suit a contemporary scheme, colourful enough for a cottage-garden look (try them planted alongside catmints and salvias to extend the season of interest) and fit right in with an informal border, too, where they go well with grasses, rudbeckias, asters and Verbena bonariensis. They look wonderful planted with strong purples and reds. Whichever plant partners you choose, Sedums need a spot in full sun or very light shade, in a south or west-facing border, on well-drained neutral or slightly alkaline soil. They'll also do well in a pot on a sunny patio.

Cut back hard in late winter and mulch with a few centimetres of well-rotted garden compost around the base for the best flowers next year. To avoid flopping, it's a good idea to apply a variation of the 'Chelsea chop' to Autumn Joy, cutting one in three stems to the ground in mid-May.

Features

• Colour: flat heads of raspberry-pink flowers
• Flowering: Aug-Sep
• Foliage: succulent, mid-green
• Height: 60cm
• Spread: 60cm
• Spacing: 50cm
• Position: sun
• Soil: well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline
• Awards: RHS Award of Garden Merit

Did you know?

The succulent leaves of most stonecrops are edible, and can even be eaten raw in salads.

Dig in garden compost or leaf mould when planting, in sun or very light shade. Space 50cm apart and water in well. Keep watered until established. Cut down spent stems in late winter. You may need to provide support. Divide congested clumps in spring.